Year in review: From scandal-plagued politicians to natural disasters, here are the biggest newsmakers of 2013

The Canadian Press12.27.2013

Newly revealed segments of a police document suggest that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may have tried to buy the notorious video.Chris Young, The Canadian Press
/ Postmedia News

Children observe from a destroyed house a cargo ship swept ashore at the height of Super Typhoon Haiyan as it still sits amongst debris and destroyed houses weeks after the storm in the coastal city of Tacloban, Leyte province, on December 24, 2013, on the eve of Christmas. Philippine survivors of one of the strongest typhoons to hit land defiantly got ready December 24, to celebrate Christmas atop their ruined communities. Haiyan’s ferocious 315 kilometres (195 miles) an hour winds flattened the gritty neighbourhood on Tacloban’s coast, called Magallanes, then swept up everything else with giant waves in a day of terror on November 8.TED ALJIBE
/ AFP/Getty Images

In this Aug. 25, 2013 file photo, singers Robin Thicke, left, and Miley Cyrus perform “Blurred Lines” at the MTV Video Music Awards in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Cyrus says in an interview clip that she doesnít listen to the negative comments regarding her performance on the MTV Video Music Awards. The pop star says she felt she and Robin Thicke were making history with the risque performance of their hits ìWe Canít Stopî and ìBlurred Lines.î The comments were Cyrusí first since the Aug. 25 show. The clip was recorded last week and posted Tuesday morning on MTVís website. Cyrus compares the performance to that of Madonna and Britney Spears, who once kissed on air.Charles Sykes
/ AP

A galvanized iron roof blown away by strong winds at the height of Super Typhoon Haiyan hangs in a tree weeks after the storm in the coastal city of Tacloban, Leyte province, on December 24, 2013, on the eve of Christmas. Philippine survivors of one of the strongest typhoons to hit land defiantly got ready December 24, to celebrate Christmas atop their ruined communities. Haiyan’s ferocious 315 kilometres (195 miles) an hour winds flattened the gritty neighbourhood on Tacloban’s coast, called Magallanes, then swept up everything else with giant waves in a day of terror on November 8.TED ALJIBE
/ AFP/Getty Images

A photo relating to the investigation into Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's participation in an alleged crack video that was included in a court document (ITO). Ford's sometime driver, Alessandro/ Alexander Lisi, was arrested and is seen with him numerous times in the documents released. "Pursuant to the Order of Justice Nordheimer yesterday, I am sending you the portions of the ITO which his Honour ordered be made public.æ Also attached is the corresponding colour photographs referenced in the ITO which can also be publicized." This image alleged to be from the "crack video" shows mayor Rob Ford with three individuals inclusing Anthony Smith, Monir Kasim and Mohanned Khattak.Tom Andreopoulos - Associate Chief Federal Prosecutor, Toronto Operations
/ COURT DOCUMENT

U.S President Barack Obama (left) takes the oath of office from U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (right) as first lady Michelle Obama (second left) holds the bible and daughter Malia (centre) and Sasha looks on in the Blue Room of the White House Jan. 20 in Washington, DC. Obama and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden were officially sworn in a day before the ceremonial inaugural swearing-in.
PoolLarry Downing
/ Pool/Getty Images

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An in-brief look back at some of the most significant news events of the last 12 months, in chronological order:

JANUARY

1 - The U.S. Congress reached a last-minute compromise on legislation, immediately signed by President Obama, to avoid a "fiscal cliff" of middle class tax increases and spending cuts.

1 - Singer Patti Page, whose hits included "Tennessee Waltz" and "(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window," died at age 85.

3 - Authorities filed murder charges against five men accused of the gang-rape of a 23-year-old university student aboard a New Delhi bus in December 2012. The brutal attack became a symbol of the widespread mistreatment of women in India.

3 - Dalhousie University in Halifax suspended the entire women's hockey team except first-year players after an investigation revealed a recent hazing ritual had involved excessive drinking, intimidation and humiliation. The team had to forfeit its season.

4 - Texas-based oil company Exxon Mobil Corp. announced plans to spend $14 billion to develop the Hebron offshore oil field off Newfoundland and Labrador with an expectation to begin producing near the end of 2017.

4 - Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai of Pakistan left hospital in Birmingham, England, three months after she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman for daring to say girls should be able to get an education. She became a symbol of the struggle for women's rights in Pakistan as her case won worldwide attention.

6 - The NHL and its players association agreed to a tentative 10-year deal to end a 113-day lockout, enabling the league to salvage the season with a truncated 48-game schedule.

8 - After more than 13 years of legal wrangling, the Federal Court ruled that the more than 600,000 Aboriginal Peoples estimated to be living off-reserve are "Indians" under a section of the Constitution Act, and fall under federal jurisdiction. The federal government appealed.

9 - Radio broadcaster Frank Page, best known for giving a teenaged Elvis one of his first radio gigs in 1954, died in hospital in Shreveport, La. He was 87.

14 - Three former Nortel executives — CEO Frank Dunn, CFO Douglas Beatty and controller Michael Gollogly — were found not guilty of fraud, nearly a decade after being accused in a book-cooking scheme designed to trigger $12.8 million in bonuses and stocks for themselves at the fallen Canadian technology giant.

14 - Conrad Bain, a native of Lethbridge, Alta., who starred as the kindly white adoptive father of two young African-American brothers in the TV sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes," died at his home in Livermore, Calif. He was 89.

15 - Two massive blasts at Syria's Aleppo University killed 87 people, and critically injured 150 others. It signalled the country's civil war was reaching areas that had mostly been spared the violence that had killed more than 60,000 people.

16 - A helicopter crashed into a highrise construction crane and fell onto a crowded street in foggy central London during morning rush hour, killing the pilot and one person on the ground and injuring 13 others.

16 - A month after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting that claimed 26 lives, U.S. President Barack Obama signed 23 executive gun control actions that did not require approval from Congress. Obama ultimately failed to push tougher measures through the Senate.

16 - Mali-based al-Qaida-linked militants stormed a remote Algerian natural gas plant, beginning a four-day hostage standoff that ended with 29 militants killed, including two Canadians, along with 38 hostages of various nationalities.

16 - Pauline Friedman Phillips, better known as Dear Abby to millions of newspaper readers around the world, died after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. She was 94.

16 - Regulators in the U.S., Japan, India and Europe temporarily grounded and ordered a safety review of all Boeing 787 Dreamliners after a series of problems with the lithium-ion batteries. Flights resumed in April after the Federal Aviation Administration approved Boeing's redesigned battery system.

17 - After years of insisting he was innocent, disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted in a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey that he took performance-enhancing drugs in each of his seven Tour de France wins.

18 - The Supreme Court of Canada overturned the acquittal of a Nova Scotia woman who tried to hire a hit man to kill her abusive husband, but said it was staying further proceedings in the interests of justice. In its decision, the court said it was "disquieting" that the RCMP chose to mount a sting operation to arrest Nicole Doucet rather than respond to her husband's "reign of terror." Her husband maintained that the allegations of abuse made against him are untrue.

21 - U.S. President Barack Obama took the oath for his second term in office at his inauguration before an estimated 800,000 jubilant citizens in Washington. Pop diva Beyonce later admitted she sang the U.S. national anthem to a pre-recorded voice track because she didn't have time to practice with the orchestra.

23 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hardline allies fared far worse than expected in a parliamentary election, forcing him to reach across the aisle to court popular political newcomer Yesh Atid to cobble together a new coalition.

23 - Three Canadian employees of Calgary-based Kenn Borek Air were killed when their Twin Otter slammed into a steep slope near the summit of Mount Elizabeth in Antarctica.

24 - Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence declared an end to a 44-day hunger strike spent on Victoria Island near Parliament Hill without winning her demand for a joint meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston.

25 - Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford won a legal battle to stay in power when a Divisional Court panel struck down a previous ruling that ordered him removed from office for violating conflict of interest laws.

25 - By a slim majority, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Quebec does not have to give common-law spouses the same rights as married couples.

26 - Former education minister Kathleen Wynne was elected as the Ontario Liberal party's new leader and was formally sworn in as the province's first female and openly gay premier on Feb. 11.

26 - A judge in Cairo sentenced 21 defendants to death for their roles in a soccer riot in Port Said's main stadium on Feb. 1, 2012, that left 74 dead. The verdict sparked violence in Port Said where 44 people died over the next few days.

27 - A band's pyrotechnics show ignited a fire that raced through a crowded windowless nightclub in the college town of Santa Maria, Brazil, killing 237 people as panicked partygoers stampeded toward the single exit.

30 - Research In Motion announced it was changing its corporate name to BlackBerry as it officially launched its long-awaited BlackBerry 10 operating system and two new smartphones. The launch did not end the Waterloo, Ont.-based company's financial woes.

30 - Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of the "Andrews Sisters" whose hits such as "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" and the poignant "I Can Dream, Can't I?" captured the home-front spirit of the Second World War, died at age 94.

31 - Finance Minister Jim Flaherty acknowledged he was suffering from a rare but serious skin disorder, treated with a steroid that had side effects such as bloating and weight gain and possible bouts of sleeplessness. He said neither the condition nor the medication would affect his ability to do his job.

FEBRUARY

1 - Former New York City mayor Ed Koch, who rescued the city from near-financial ruin during three terms at city hall, died at age 88.

3 - In the first Super Bowl to feature brothers as opposing coaches, John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens defeated the younger Jim's San Francisco 49ers 34-31.

4 - The Royal Canadian Mint officially ended its distribution of one-cent coins to Canada's financial institutions.

4 - Using DNA from a direct descendent of his eldest sister, scientists confirmed that remains unearthed under a parking lot in the city of Leicester in 2012 were those of England's King Richard III. The DNA came from Canadian Michael Ibsen, a living direct descendant of the king's older sister.

4 - Rock star Reg Presley, lead singer of "The Troggs," who had hit songs including "Wild Thing," died after a year-long bout with lung cancer. He was 71.

7 - Sen. Patrick Brazeau was removed from the Conservative caucus after being charged with assault and sexual assault. Senators later voted to force him to take a leave of absence from the upper chamber.

8 - Canadian naval intelligence officer Sub.-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle was sentenced to 20 years in prison, minus time already served, after pleading guilty in 2012 to breach of trust for selling secrets to Russia. He was later stripped of his commission, his service decorations and kicked out of the military.

8 - A giant snowstorm barrelled across southern Ontario and Quebec and later tracked through Atlantic Canada and the U.S. northeast, dumping as much as 90 centimetres of snow in some parts of New England. The storm was blamed for at least 11 deaths in the U.S. and three in Canada.

10 - The pilot, two of his sons and a boy who was a family friend died after a small private plane crashed near Waskada in southwestern Manitoba.

10 - An engine fire crippled the cruise ship Carnival Triumph, with more than 4,200 passengers and crew aboard, in the Gulf of Mexico. Tug boats were able to tow it to Mobile, Ala., by Feb. 14.

11 - The Vatican announced that 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI would resign Feb. 28, the first pontiff to do so since Gregory XII in 1415, citing his age and poor health.

11 - Pierre Duhaime, a former chief executive with engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, was formally charged with fraud in relation to $56 million in payments involving the building of the multibillion-dollar McGill University Health Centre.

11 - Bass player Rick Huxley, one of the founding members of the "Dave Clark Five," died at age 72.

12 - Fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner killed a police officer in a shootout at a mountain cabin near Los Angeles before killing himself. Police began a manhunt for Dorner after he killed the daughter of a former Los Angeles Police Department captain and her fiance Feb. 3 and later a Riverside police officer as part of a campaign to exact revenge against the force for his firing in 2008.

14 - Oscar Pistorius, who in 2012 became the first double-amputee track athlete to compete in the Olympics, was charged with murder in the death of his girlfriend. Model Reeva Steenkamp was shot to death inside his home in South Africa.

14 - American Airlines and US Airways agreed to merge in an $11 billion deal that would create the world's biggest airline, pending approval.

15 - A meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains, with its sonic booms shattering countless windows, damaging buildings and vehicles and injuring nearly 1,000 people.

15 - The Manitoba Court of Appeal increased the prison sentence of former junior hockey coach Graham James to five years from two after his 2012 conviction of sexually abusing National Hockey League star Theo Fleury and his younger cousin.

15 - Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan resigned after improperly advocating to a tax court on behalf of a constituent.

15 - A court martial panel found retired warrant officer Paul Ravensdale guilty of four charges but acquitted him of manslaughter in a training accident in Afghanistan that killed one soldier and injured four others in 2010. Ravensdale was later issued a six-month suspended sentence, fined $2,000 and demoted to sergeant.

17 - Mindy McCready, who hit the top of the country charts in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time" before personal problems sidetracked her career, killed herself at her Arkansas home a month after her boyfriend committed suicide. She was 37.

17 - A search began for five young Shelburne County fishermen after their 14-metre vessel capsized about 120 kilometres southeast of Liverpool, N.S. The search was called off two days later.

18 - Eight masked gunmen forced their way through the security fence at Brussels' international airport, drove onto the tarmac and snatched some $50 million worth of diamonds from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane. Thirty-one people were detained in May and many of the diamonds recovered.

19 - Eugene Whelan, a folksy farmer in a green Stetson who served as Canada's flamboyant minister of agriculture from 1972-84, died from complications from a stroke. He was 88.

19 - Montreal's city hall was locked down while being swept by police as the province's anti-corruption squad conducted 15 raids across the city.

20 - Canadian Forces reservist Maj. Darryl Watts avoided jail for his role in a deadly training accident in Afghanistan in 2010, but was demoted to lieutenant and received a severe reprimand.

22 - The Pentagon grounded its entire fleet of F-35 fighter jets after discovering a cracked engine blade in one plane. The Harper government had signalled that it wanted to buy the F-35, but after a political firestorm and criticism from the auditor general, said it was rethinking the proposal.

24 - The Iran hostage rescue drama "Argo" won best picture, Jennifer Lawrence won best actress for "Silver Linings Playbook," Daniel Day-Lewis was named best actor for "Lincoln" and Ang Lee won best director for "Life of Pi" at the Academy Awards. Day-Lewis was the first person to win three best actor awards.

25 - Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Britain's highest-ranking Catholic leader, announced he was resigning as archbishop in the wake of misconduct allegations. He skipped the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, the first time a cardinal stayed away because of personal scandal.

25 - Canadian Andrew Wiggins won the Naismith Trophy as the top high school basketball player in the U.S.

26 - A hot air balloon carrying tourists over Luxor, Egypt, caught fire, and some passengers leaped to their deaths before the craft crashed in a field. In all, 19 tourists were killed in the accident and another later died in hospital.

26 - Brenden Holubowich, charged in a crash that killed four high school football players from northern Alberta in 2011, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. He was later sentenced to three years in prison.

27 - Disgraced theatre impresario Garth Drabinsky, convicted in 2009 for a book-cooking scheme that ultimately resulted in the demise of Livent Inc., was stripped of his Order of Canada.

27 - Renowned American classical pianist Van Cliburn died after suffering from bone cancer. He was 78.

28 - Pope Benedict XVI promised his "unconditional reverence and obedience" to his successor in a farewell speech to cardinals, delivered hours before he became the first pontiff in 600 years to resign.

28 - Bruce Reynolds, the mastermind of the 1963 "Great Train Robbery" in Britain, died at age 81.

28 - A massive sinkhole opened underneath a Florida man's bedroom, killing him when it swallowed everything in his room.

MARCH

1 - Bonnie Franklin, who played divorced mom Ann Romano on the long-running sitcom "One Day at a Time," died due to complications from pancreatic cancer. She was 69.

1 - Eight South African police officers were charged with murder in the death of a taxi driver who was bound to the back of a police vehicle and dragged away, a videotaped incident that became a worldwide symbol of police brutality in the country.

1 - Automatic U.S. government spending cuts of $85 billion, known as sequestration, took effect after President Barack Obama and Congress failed to reach a budget deal.

2 - Quebec Const. Steve Dery, 27, was shot and killed and another officer was wounded while responding to a domestic dispute in the remote northern community of Kuujjuaq. After a standoff the shooter was found dead inside the home.

3 - "Rebelle" won 10 trophies including best film and best actress at the inaugural Canadian Screen Awards, which combines the previous Gemini and Genie Awards into one joint TV and film celebration. "Flashpoint" took the top prizes in the TV race, including best drama.

4 - B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced Multiculturalism Minister John Yap was out of cabinet pending the outcome of a review of a controversial leaked ethnic vote-winning strategy. Clark's deputy chief of staff had earlier resigned amid a political firestorm over the 2012 report, which detailed ways to woo ethnic voters and suggested government resources be used.

4 - A public inquiry began into the collapse of the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, Ont., which killed two women in June 2012.

5 - President Hugo Chavez, who declared a socialist revolution in oil-rich Venezuela and crusaded against U.S. influence, died after a nearly two-year bout with cancer. He was 58.

5 - U.S. discount giant Target opened its doors in Canada for the first time. Its first stores were in three communities west of Toronto — Guelph, Fergus and Milton.

6 - Canadian country-folk legend Stompin' Tom Connors, one of Canada's strongest cultural icons, died at age 77.

8 - The Metis won a landmark case as the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the federal government failed to live up to its constitutional obligations in handing out land to children of the Manitoba Metis in the 1870s. It opened the door for the Metis to negotiate a claim to vast tracts of land in the province including all of present-day Winnipeg.

12 - Richard Beasley, a triple killer who lured victims with bogus job offers on Craigslist, was convicted of murder by an Ohio jury. Beasley, 53, was sentenced to death on April 4.

13 - Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, was elected pope of the Roman Catholic Church, choosing the name Pope Francis. The Argentine native was the first Latin American and first Jesuit pontiff.

13 - Astronaut Chris Hadfield became the first Canadian to take command of the International Space Station.

14 - Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Peter Penashue, who represented the riding of Labrador, resigned his seat and repaid $47,660 in "ineligible" campaign donations from the 2011 election campaign. He lost his bid for re-election in the byelection that followed.

14 - Physicists confirmed that the elusive subatomic particle discovered in July 2012 was a version of the long-sought Higgs boson or so-called "God particle."

14 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached an agreement to form a new coalition government, the first government in decades not to include any ultra-Orthodox parties.

17 - Two prisoners staged a brazen daylight escape from a jail in Saint-Jerome, Que., dangling on a rope lowered from a hijacked helicopter. The two were taken back into custody, but not before an exchange of gunfire with police at a rural cabin. No one was injured. Two accomplices were also arrested.

19 - Pope Francis was officially installed as the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

19 - Former porn star Harry Reems, who co-starred in the 1972 movie "Deep Throat," which brought pornography to mainstream audiences, died at age 65.

20 - Malware shuts down 32,000 computers and servers at three major South Korean TV networks and three banks, disrupting communications and banking businesses. South Korea suspected North Korea was behind the cyberattack.

21 - Justin Welby was enthroned as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, serving as the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the world's Anglican Communion.

23 - Montreal-born Joe Weider, a legendary figure in bodybuilding who helped popularize the sport worldwide and played a key role in introducing a charismatic young weightlifter named Arnold Schwarzenegger to the world, died at age 93.

26 - The Italian Supreme Court overturned Amanda Knox's acquittal in the 2007 slaying of her British roommate Meredith Kercher and ordered a new trial. Knox had left Italy after her initial conviction and did not return for the retrial.

27 - Richard Kachkar, who hit and killed Toronto police officer Sgt. Ryan Russell with a snowplow in January 2011, was found not criminally responsible because he was mentally ill.

29 - Ralph Klein, the popular, outspoken premier who slew Alberta's debt dragon, died at the age of 70 after a battle with dementia and lung disease.

APRIL

1 - British Columbia returned to a separate GST and seven per cent PST with all its exemptions after residents voted against the controversial Harmonized Sales Tax in a 2011 referendum. The move came as P.E.I. adopted the HST.

2 - Michael Sona, a junior Conservative party campaign worker in Guelph, Ont., was the first person charged under the Elections Act in relation to fraudulent robocalls made during the 2011 federal election campaign.

3 - NBC announced "Late Night" host Jimmy Fallon would replace Jay Leno as host of "The Tonight Show" following NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics in 2014.

4 - Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times film critic who became famous for giving movies a thumbs up or down on a long-running television show, died of cancer at age 70. Ebert was the first journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for movie criticism.

6 - Canadian sportscasting pioneer Johnny Esaw, who brought football, figure skating and the Olympic Games into the nation's living rooms, died after suffering from respiratory problems. He was 87.

7 - Halifax teenager Rehteah Parsons was taken off life support after a suicide attempt three days earlier. Her family said Parsons, 17, struggled with depression after a photograph of her alleged sexual assault by four boys at a house party in 2011 was distributed online.

8 - Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister who became known as the Iron Lady, died at age 87. During her 11 years in office, Thatcher transformed a crippled economy by breaking unions and selling off state industries — admired by some as a saviour of Britain but regarded by critics as a heartless tyrant. She also triumphed in the Falklands War.

8 - Annette Funicello, who became a child star on "The Mickey Mouse Club" in the 1950s and later teamed up with Frankie Avalon on a string of '60s fun-in-the-sun movies including "Beach Blanket Bingo," died at age 70.

11 - Honda, Toyota, Nissan, GM, Mazda and BMW recalled more than three million vehicles globally, including some 200,000 in Canada, for an identical problem with inflators that could burst in faulty passenger side airbags, sending plastic pieces flying.

11 - Royal Bank's chief executive Gord Nixon issued a public apology following a backlash after Canadian information technology workers at the bank complained they were being replaced by foreign workers, some of whom were being brought to Canada for training by the bank's contractor, iGate.

12 - The U.S. government approved the construction of a second bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., which was expected to relieve congestion and speed up trade at the busiest border crossing between the two countries.

14 - Justin Trudeau was elected leader of the federal Liberal party in a landslide, first-ballot win in hopes he could revive the party after being reduced to third party status in the 2011 election.

15 - Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Four days later, two suspects killed an MIT campus police officer and were involved in a police chase and gun battle that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead. His brother Dzhokhar was apprehended hours later, alive but badly wounded, hiding in a boat in a backyard in the Boston suburb of Watertown.

16 - Nova Scotia singer-songwriter Rita MacNeil died following complications from surgery. She was 68.

16 - Pat Summerall, the deep-voiced NFL player-turned-broadcaster who spent half of his four decades calling sports famously paired with John Madden, died at age 82.

18 - Canadian prog-rock trio "Rush" was among the inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

19 - Canadian Cynthia Vanier, who was held for 18 months in Mexico for allegedly plotting to smuggle the son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi into the country, was released from prison.

21 - Chrissy Amphlett, lead singer of the Australian rock band "Divinyls" whose hit "I Touch Myself" brought her international fame in the early 1990s, died after a battle with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis. She was 53.

22 - Folk singer Richie Havens, the first performer at the three-day 1969 Woodstock Festival, died of a heart attack at age 72. His performance of "Freedom" became an anthem.

22 - Two Canadian residents were arrested and charged for allegedly planning to attack a passenger train that travels between the U.S. and Canada in what the RCMP called the first known al-Qaida directed plot in this country. Tunisian national Ahmed Abassi was also detained in the U.S. and later charged in connection with the alleged plot.

23 - Legislation that would end a centuries-old British rule that puts boys before girls in the succession to the throne cleared the House of Lords and was sent to the Queen for her approval.

24 - An illegally constructed eight-storey building in Bangladesh housing garment factories that supplied clothes to North American companies collapsed, killing 1,127 people.

25 - Canadian Susan Griffiths, who went to Switzerland for a doctor-assisted suicide, died peacefully at a clinic in Zurich. Griffiths, 72, suffered from multiple system atrophy, a degenerative disorder.

26 - Country singer George Jones, who peaked with the heartbreaking classic "He Stopped Loving Her Today," died in Nashville while in the middle of his farewell tour. He was 81.

26 - Guards at the newly opened Edmonton Remand Centre began a wildcat strike after two workers were suspended. The strike eventually spread to correctional facilities throughout the province. A Court ruled the guards were in contempt for an illegal strike and their union was fined $350,000. An agreement with the Alberta government ended the strike on April 30, minutes before the fine was to increase to $500,000.

29 - Five family members in a car — three adults and two children — were killed in Surrey, B.C., when a minivan ran a red light at a high rate of speed and broadsided the car, leaving a debris field of about 200 metres in size. The driver of the minivan later died in hospital.

29 - Jason Collins, a 12-year NBA veteran and free agent, became the first active male pro athlete in the four major sports leagues to come out as gay.

30 - Willem-Alexander became the first Dutch king since 1890 as his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicated after a 33-year reign.

30 - The Bank of Canada unveiled the $5 and $10 polymer bills, the final in a series of the plastic banknotes.

MAY

1 - Tim Bachman, who co-founded the iconic Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, was found not guilty of sex charges brought by a woman who said he abused her when she was a pre-teen foster child in his home.

2 - Stephen Poloz, the former head of Export Development Canada, was named as the next governor of the Bank of Canada, replacing Mark Carney.

6 - Three women who disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004 were found alive in a Cleveland home not far from where the abductions took place. Gina DeJesus, 23, Michelle Knight, 32, Amanda Berry, 27, were rescued after Berry broke part of a door and yelled to neighbours for help. Berry's six-year-old daughter was also rescued.

8 - Jodi Arias was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2008 brutal stabbing and shooting death of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in his suburban Phoenix home.

9 - Former longtime Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt was among dozens of people arrested in Quebec's ongoing anti-corruption probe. He faced a dozen charges, including directing a criminal organization.

9 - Original "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson announced he was leaving the FOX TV singing competition at the conclusion of the 12th season.

11 - Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his Muslim League-N party won nationwide elections in Pakistan. Parliament elected Sharif prime minister on June 5, marking the first time in Pakistan's 65-year history that a civilian government had completed its full term and handed over power in democratic elections.

12 - In what is believed to be the first music video made in space, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield bid a memorable farewell to the International Space Station by releasing his version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity." The next day, Hadfield touched down in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, ending a five-month mission.

12 - Karl Lilgert, the navigating officer in charge of a passenger ferry that struck an island and sank off the coast of British Columbia in 2006, killing two passengers, was convicted of criminal negligence causing death.

12 - Joyce Brothers, the pop psychologist who pioneered the television advice show in the 1950s and enjoyed a prolific career as a syndicated columnist, died at age 85.

14 - The B.C. Liberals defied months of abysmal polling numbers to win their fourth consecutive provincial election. Premier Christy Clark led the party to an expanded majority but lost her Vancouver-area riding. She won a byelection in July.

14 - Police said they had recovered the burned remains of Tim Bosma, a 32-year-old Hamilton father who disappeared on May 6 after taking two men for a test drive in a truck he posted for sale online. Dellen Millard, 27, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Mark Smich was arrested on May 22.

16 - Embattled Sen. Mike Duffy resigned from the Conservative caucus to sit as an independent amid a scandal over $90,000 in disallowed housing claims. The next day, Sen. Pamela Wallin also stepped down from the Conservative caucus pending an audit of $321,000 in travel expenses.

16 - U.S. gossip website Gawker and The Toronto Star reported they had seen a cellphone video that appeared to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. Ford called the report "ridiculous" and issued a statement May 24 denying he uses crack and saying the video did not exist.

17 - Elijah Harper, the Cree politician who clutched an eagle feather as he blocked the Meech Lake constitutional accord in 1990, died of cardiac failure due to diabetes complications. He was 64.

19 - Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff, resigned after the Prime Minister's Office disclosed he'd written a $90,000 cheque to cover the disallowed housing expenses of Sen. Mike Duffy. Harper said he had no knowledge of the payment.

20 - A massive EF-5 tornado, the most powerful type of twister, touched down in Moore, Okla., killing 24 people, including 10 schoolchildren, and causing $2 billion in damage.

20 - Yahoo announced it was buying popular online blogging forum Tumblr for $1.1 billion. The acquisition was completed in mid-June.

22 - An Italian judge ordered cruise ship captain Francesco Schettino to stand trial for manslaughter after the Costa Concordia hit a jagged reef off the coast of Tuscany in 2012 and ended up half-submerged, killing 32 people.

22 - Canada Blood Services announced it was lifting a nearly 30-year ban on blood donation by gay men, but only if they haven't had sex with another man for five years before the donation.

22 - While horrified bystanders watched, a British soldier was first run over and then hacked to death by two men in a daylight attack near his barracks in London. One attacker was caught on video complaining about British troops fighting Muslims.

23 - Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley concluded that fraud was definitely a factor in the rash of misleading robocalls to voters in six federal ridings in the 2011 election, but not enough to justify overturning the results.

23 - Survivors of abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, N.L., reached a settlement with the Christian Brothers of Ireland worth more than $16.5 million.

23 - The Boy Scouts of America voted to allow openly gay boys into the youth organization but gay adults would remain barred from serving as Scout leaders.

25 - Hockey Canada voted to ban bodychecking for peewee players, who are usually 11 and 12 years old.

27 - Arthur Porter, the former head of Canada's spy-agency watchdog and former CEO of the McGill University Health Centre, was arrested in Panama on fraud charges in connection with Quebec's ongoing corruption scandals.

28 - The Canadian Transportation Agency ordered Air Canada to boost compensation paid to passengers it bumps from overbooked flights.

29 - Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who helped overturn Canada's abortion law in 1988, died at his Toronto home. He was 90. To his enemies he was a mass murderer, but to many he was the man who put women's health and choice in the mainstream media.

29 - The federal Conservatives and NDP, Ontario's Progressive Conservatives, Alberta's Wildrose party, Liberal MP Marc Garneau, Conservative MP Blake Richards and Edmonton-based RackNine Inc. were fined a combined $369,000 as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the use of robocalls during the 2011 federal election.

31 - Two pilots and two paramedics died when an Ornge air ambulance helicopter crashed near Moosonee, Ont.

31 - An EF5 tornado struck El Reno, Okla., which along with subsequent flooding killed 19 people, including three storm chasers. The twister had a record-breaking width of 4.2 kilometres.

31 - The first Toronto police officer to go to trial on criminal charges stemming from the G20 protests was found not guilty. Const. Glenn Weddell was charged after Dorian Barton's shoulder was broken on June 16, 2010.

31 - Jean Stapleton, who played Edith Bunker on the groundbreaking 1970s TV comedy "All in the Family," died of natural causes. She was 90.

31 - The B.C. government officially declared its opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline — to run from Alberta's oilsands to Kitimat, B.C. — telling a federal review panel that the $6-billion project should not go ahead as proposed.

JUNE

1 - The Quebec Soccer Federation upheld a ban against players wearing turbans for safety reasons, noting soccer's international governing body FIFA did not specifically allow the religious headgear worn by Sikh men and boys.

3 - The CRTC announced a new wireless code of conduct that included allowing consumers to cancel cellphone contracts after two years without penalty. It also put a cap on extra data and international data roaming charges. The new code applied to new wireless contracts beginning Dec. 2.

4 - The Royal Family gathered at Westminster Abbey for a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the coronation of the Queen, who was crowned in the abbey on June 2, 1953, at age 27.

5 - Eighty-four-year-old widow Gloria MacKenzie of Zephyrhills, Fla., claimed the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history, $590 million from a Powerball draw on May 18.

5 - Alberta MP Brent Rathgeber abruptly quit the Conservative caucus in the wake of the government's decision to water down his private member's bill to make public the salaries of senior federal civil servants.

6 - Esther Williams, the swimming champion turned actress who starred in glittering and aquatic Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, died at age 91.

7 - CFB Edmonton was the first Canadian military base to raise a gay pride flag as a symbol of Armed Forces principles of inclusiveness, equality and dignity.

10 - At his first news conference since returning from a five-month mission to the International Space Station, astronaut Chris Hadfield announced he would be retiring from the Canadian Space Agency on July 3, ending a 35-year career.

11 - Greece closed all of its state-run TV and radio stations with the loss of some 2,500 jobs as part of its cost-cutting drive demanded by the bailed-out country's international creditors.

12 - The Quebec government tabled its controversial right-to-die legislation in the national assembly. The bill, the first of its kind in Canada, would allow doctors to help end the life of some terminally ill patients.

14 - Retired Gen. Walt Natynczyk, former head of the Canadian Forces, was selected as the next president of the Canadian Space Agency, effective Aug. 6, replacing Steve MacLean who left unexpectedly in February.

14 - The Quebec legislature adopted a fixed election-date bill, leaving Nova Scotia as the last Canadian province without one.

15 - The Quebec Soccer Federation ended its internationally criticized turban ban a day after governing body FIFA authorized the wearing of male head covers at all levels of Canadian soccer.

17 - Interim Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum, who had cast himself as the man to clean up corruption scandals plaguing the city, was arrested on 14 charges including fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust, and corruption in municipal affairs. He resigned the next day.

18 - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai announced Afghan forces took over the lead from the U.S.-led NATO coalition for security nationwide, a significant milestone in the 12-year war.

19 - Bob Rae, one-time Ontario NDP premier and former interim federal Liberal leader, announced he was leaving politics after 35 years so he could focus on his new role as chief negotiator for First Nations in talks with the province about development of the Ring of Fire mining project in northern Ontario.

19 - James Gandolfini, whose portrayal of mob boss Tony Soprano in "The Sopranos" helped create one of TV's greatest drama series, died of cardiac arrest while vacationing in Rome. He was 51.

19 - Country singer Slim Whitman, famous for his signature yodel, died of heart failure at age 89.

20 - Rain-swollen rivers burst their banks across southern Alberta, prompting more than a dozen towns to declare states of emergency. The province estimated more than 100,000 people in 30 communities were affected by what Premier Allison Redford later called the worst natural disaster in Alberta's history, with damage pegged at more than $6 billion.

21 - Hershey Canada Inc. was ordered to pay a $4-million fine after pleading guilty to working with other companies to fix the price of chocolate products in Canada in 2007.

21 - The U.S. government charged former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden with espionage and theft of government property after he admitted to providing information to the news media about two highly classified government programs to collect phone records and online data. Snowden had fled to China and was then holed up for almost six weeks in Moscow's airport before being granted a year's asylum in Russia.

24 - A Milan court convicted former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, 76, of paying for sex with an under-age prostitute and then using his influence to try to cover it up. His lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, seven-year prison term and a lifetime political ban.

24 - The Alberta government approved $1 billion to kick start the first phase of recovery from record flooding.

25 - Laurent Blanchard was chosen as Montreal's new interim mayor, its third mayor in eight months after Gerald Tremblay and former interim Michael Applebaum both resigned after being embroiled in the province's corruption scandal.

25 - In a highly anticipated speech on his second-term climate objectives, U.S. President Barack Obama said American authorities should only approve TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline if they're certain it won't "significantly exacerbate" greenhouse gas emissions.

26 - Australia's first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, was ousted as Labor party leader by her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, in a vote of party lawmakers hoping to avoid a huge defeat in upcoming elections. Despite the change, the Labor party was defeated in the September vote and Rudd resigned from politics.

26 - President Barack Obama hailed the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, giving spouses in same-sex unions the same federal benefits as heterosexual couples. The high court also cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California.

27 - Sunrise Propane and its directors, Shay Ben-Moshe and Valery Belshov, were found guilty of nine environmental and labour regulations in the Aug. 10, 2008, explosion at a propane plant in Toronto that killed one man, led to the death of an off-duty firefighter responding to the call, and forced thousands from their homes.

27 - Six railcars derailed on a partially collapsed bridge over the swollen Bow River in Calgary. Crews successfully emptied five cars that contained an oil product into new cars on an adjacent stable bridge and removed the derailed units.

27 - The CRTC approved BCE Inc.'s retooled $3.4-billion bid for Astral Media with the telecom giant agreeing to sell some of Astral's specialty TV channels and radio stations. The original bid had been rejected on grounds it wasn't in the best interests of Canadians.

28 - The Ontario Appeals Court ruled that former Conservative cabinet minister Helena Guergis, who claimed Prime Minister Stephen Harper unfairly fired her as part of a conspiracy that ousted her from caucus, has no grounds to sue.

29 - Four people — both pilots and two passengers — died after a glider collided mid-air with a small plane over a campground in Nairn Provincial Park near Pemberton, B.C.

29 - Thick smoke from a forest fire that continued to rage in western Labrador forced the evacuation of 1,300 people from the small mining community of Wabush.

30 - Nineteen elite Arizona wildland firefighters were killed as they were working to build a fire line between a wildfire and a town when erratic winds suddenly shifted the fire's direction, cutting off their escape route.

30 - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a measure that would impose hefty fines for holding gay pride rallies or providing information about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to minors.

JULY

1 - Two Canadian-born suspects with an "al-Qaida ideology" were arrested in Abbotsford in an alleged plot to blow up the B.C. legislature on Canada Day. John Stewart Nuttall and Amanda Marie Korody faced charges including knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity and making or possessing an explosive device.

1 - Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney began his stint as head of the Bank of England, the first non-Brit to run it in its 319-year history.

1 - Croatia became the 28th member of the European Union, 20 years after it won independence in a bloody civil war that shook the continent.

1 - Canadian rockers Avril Lavigne and "Nickelback" frontman Chad Kroeger were married at the medieval Chateau de la Napoule outside Cannes, France.

3 - Egypt's military ousted the nation's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, after just a year in power, installing a temporary civilian government, suspending the constitution and calling for new elections.

6 - A runaway train carrying crude oil derailed in Lac-Megantic, Que., igniting explosions and fires that incinerated the small town's centre, killing 47 people and forcing the evacuation of nearly 2,000 others. Millions of litres of oil also leaked into the soil and nearby water bodies.

6 - An Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea, crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport, killing two Chinese students. A coroner found a third Chinese student who later died in hospital survived the crash but was killed by an emergency vehicle racing to the scene.

8 - Parts of Toronto received a single-day rainfall record of 126 millimetres, causing flash flooding and widespread power outages. Large parts of the subway and rail services were shut down and the marine unit rescued nearly 1,400 passengers from a flooded GO Transit train. Damage to flooded homes was later estimated to be at least $850 million.

8 - Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced his resignation as MP for the Manitoba riding of Provencher to pursue opportunities in the private sector.

10 - The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP found the force did all it could for a woman who accused her husband of abuse and tried to have him killed. The investigation came after the Supreme Court of Canada said in a ruling in January that the Mounties ignored Nicole Doucet's pleas for help.

12 - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced her resignation to become president of the University of California.

13 - A Florida jury acquitted former neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012.

13 - Canadian actor Cory Monteith, who rose to stardom playing the reluctant quarterback-turned-singer Finn Hudson in the hit TV musical series "Glee," was found dead in a Vancouver hotel room from an overdose of heroin and alcohol combined. He was 31.

15 -In 2013, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and International Trade Minister Ed Fast all held on to key economic portfolios as Prime Minister Stephen Harper added eight new faces in the biggest cabinet shuffle since his Conservative government first came to power in 2006. Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson swapped jobs. Lisa Raitt was named the new transport minister.

16 - Sun Media Corp. announced it was cutting 360 positions and closing 11 publications across the country, including its 24 Hours free daily newspapers in Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton.

16 - Canada's 50-year-old fleet of Sea King helicopters was indefinitely grounded a day after one of the choppers landed at CFB Shearwater in Halifax and tipped forward while the rotors were still spinning, smashed five of its rotor blades on the tarmac.

16 - Celebrated painter Alex Colville, one of Canada's most well-known modern artists, died at his home in Wolfville, N.S. He was 92.

17 - Canadian jazz musician Peter Appleyard, a master of the vibraphone who shared the stage with such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Mel Torme and Ella Fitzgerald, died at home on his farm in Eden Mills, Ont. He was 84.

17 - Edmonton police charged Mark Marek, the owner of a gore website, with one count of corrupting morals for carrying grisly video at the centre of the Luka Magnotta murder case.

17 - Twenty-three children in India died and more than two dozen others were sickened after eating a free school lunch that was tainted with insecticide.

17 - Britain legalized gay marriage after the Queen gave her royal assent, clearing the way for the first same-sex weddings in the summer of 2014.

18 - Detroit, the once-mighty symbol of America's manufacturing strength, became the biggest American city ever to file for bankruptcy — the result of a long, slow decline in population and auto manufacturing.

22 - The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate, welcomed the birth of their first child, George Alexander Louis. He would be known as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge.

23 - In the wake of the Lac-Megantic disaster, Ottawa issued emergency rail directives that would see at least two crew members work trains that carry dangerous goods. In addition, no locomotive attached to one or more loaded tank cars transporting dangerous materials can be left unattended on a main track.

24 - Seventy-nine people were killed when a speeding eight-carriage passenger train hurtled off the tracks while rounding a curve just before arriving at the shrine city of Santiago De Compostela, Spain, on the eve of a major Christian religious festival.

24 - A two-year-old girl and three-month-old baby boy were pronounced dead in hospital after being found in critical condition at their Winnipeg home. The body of the children's mother, 32-year-old Lisa Gibson, was pulled from the Red River four days later.

26 - Ariel Castro, the 53-year-old man who imprisoned three women in his Cleveland home and subjected them to a decade of rapes and beatings, pleaded guilty to 937 counts in a deal to avoid the death penalty and was later sentenced to life without parole plus 1,000 years.

26 - A tanker truck carrying about 35,000 litres of jet fuel crashed into Lemon Creek in British Columbia's West Kootenay region, forcing the evacuation of 1,500 people.

27 - The fatal police shooting of a young Toronto man aboard an empty streetcar sparked outrage after it was captured on cellphone video. The province's Special Investigations Unit said Sammy Yatim, 18, died after receiving multiple gunshot wounds during an "interaction'' with police. A Taser was also used.

27 - Six teenagers — three males and three females ranging in age from 13 to 17 — were killed when their small car collided with a tanker truck at a rural intersection just south of Lloydminster, Sask. The truck overturned and rested on its roof in a road-side slough with the car underneath it, completely submerged.

28 - An Italian tour bus plowed through several cars, crashed through the side wall of a highway bridge and plunged some 30 metres into a ravine, killing at least 38 people and injuring 10 others.

29 - Canadian retailer Hudson's Bay Co. announced it would acquire U.S. luxury retailer Saks Inc. in a friendly deal worth US$2.9 billion, with plans to open seven full-line stores and about two dozen locations under a discount banner across Canada.

30 - A U.S. military judge acquitted Army Pfc. Bradley Manning of aiding the enemy, the most serious charge he faced for giving over 700,000 battlefield reports and diplomatic cables to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in 2010. But he was convicted on all other charges against him. Manning was later sentenced to 35 years in prison.

AUGUST

1 - Russia granted a year of asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

5 - Two young brothers, aged five and seven, were killed by an African rock python while at a sleepover at a friend's apartment above an exotic pet store in Campbellton, N.B.

7 - Yemen authorities foiled a plot by al-Qaida militants aimed at taking control of two cities, then storming strategic ports and bombing gas facilities.

7 - Nova Scotia's new Cyber-Safety Act took effect, with the goal of defending the victims of cyberbullying. Under the act, bullies or their parents can be held financially responsible for damages.

7 - Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada and the U.S. amid a flurry of lawsuits over the rail disaster in Lac-Megantic, Que., and growing cleanup costs the company estimated would surpass $200 million.

8 - Child pornography charges were laid against two 18-year-old men in the case of Rehtaeh Parsons. The 17-year-old Halifax girl died in April following a suicide attempt her family said stemmed from months of cyberbullying after a digital photo of her allegedly being sexually assaulted was passed around her school.

10 - A 16-year-old girl was found safe, and her abductor, 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio, was killed in a shootout with FBI agents at a campsite in Idaho. DiMaggio was suspected of killing Hannah Anderson's mother and younger brother at his home in Southern California a week earlier.

12 - Eighty-three-year-old James "Whitey" Bulger, the feared Boston mob boss who became one of the most-wanted fugitives in the U.S., was convicted in a string of 11 killings and other gangland crimes, many of them committed while he was said to be an FBI informant.

13 - A Senate committee ordered Sen. Pamela Wallin to pay back an additional $83,000 in ineligible travel expense claims, on top of the $38,000 she had already repaid. After further reviews, she had to reimburse the Senate a total of $138,970.

14 - Egyptian riot police stormed two protest camps in Cairo where supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi had gathered since June to demand his reinstatement. It sparked running street battles between Morsi's supporters and security forces across Egypt. At least 638 people were killed and over 4,000 were injured nationwide.

21 - A poison gas attack on rebel-held suburbs of Damascus killed 1,400 civilians, including 400 children. The United Nations later determined sarin had been used.

26 - Former Disney star Miley Cyrus overshadowed all others at the MTV Video Music Awards with a sexually charged performance that featured the scantily dressed singer twerking, gyrating on Robin Thicke and sticking out her tongue.

26 - Mac Harb, who had been embroiled for months in a battle over his expenses and earlier quit the Liberal caucus, resigned from the Senate.

28 - U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan was sentenced to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, which killed 13 people and wounded more than 30.

29 - The NFL agreed to pay $765 million to settle lawsuits by Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett and thousands of other former players suffering from dementia and other concussion-related brain injuries. A federal judge still had to approve the settlement.

31 - The Canadian Auto Workers union and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada formally merged into Unifor, Canada's largest private sector union with more than 300,000 members. Jerry Dias was elected the first president.

31 - Veteran British journalist and broadcaster David Frost, who won fame around the world for his TV interviews with former U.S. president Richard Nixon, died at age 74.

SEPTEMBER

2 - On her fifth try, U.S. endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, 64, became the first person to swim the treacherous waters from Cuba to Key West, Fla., without the aid of a shark cage. The 177-kilometre journey took her 53 hours.

3 - Microsoft Corp. announced a $7.2 billion deal to buy Nokia Corp.'s line-up of smartphones and a portfolio of patents and services in an attempt to strengthen its fight with Apple and Google and capture a slice of the lucrative mobile computing market.

3 - Ariel Castro, who had just started serving a life sentence for holding three kidnapped women in his Cleveland home and repeatedly abusing them for nearly a decade, was found hanging in his cell. Police concluded he committed suicide.

9 - Armoured car guard Travis Baumgartner, who killed three co-workers and severely injured a fourth in Edmonton, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and attempted murder in a plea bargain. He was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for at least 40 years, the first sentence based on a 2011 federal law that allows consecutive parole terms in cases involving multiple murders.

9 - A court in India convicted four men of the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving New Delhi bus, an attack that set off waves of protests and gave voice to years of anger over the treatment of women. All four were sentenced to death but they all appealed.

9 - Three people died after a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter crashed in Arctic waters during a routine patrol to check ice conditions. Post-mortem examinations suggested the victims likely survived the impact, but later died of cold water immersion.

10 - The Quebec government released its proposals for a controversial "values charter" that would restrict religious clothing and symbols worn by employees at all government institutions. The proposals set off a storm of controversy.

11 - Rock 97.9 in Fort McMurray, Alta., pulled Neil Young's music for a day and then banned it indefinitely after he compared the oilsands city to Hiroshima after the atomic bomb.

12 - The Bloc Quebecois expelled MP Maria Mourani from caucus for her stinging criticism of the Parti Quebecois government's proposed charter of values. The next day, she quit the separatist party to sit as an Independent MP.

12 - Toronto Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani was convicted of assault with a weapon after a judge found he used excessive force during the arrest of G20 protester Adam Nobody in June 2010 on the lawn of the Ontario legislature.

12 - Kensington Palace officials announced Prince William finished his tour of duty as a Royal Air Force search-and-rescue helicopter pilot and left operational service with the British military after seven years to focus on royal duties and charity work.

12 - A raging fire engulfed much of an iconic Jersey shore boardwalk, destroying more than 50 businesses and undoing months of rebuilding efforts after Superstorm Sandy in October 2012.

13 - An Ontario judge ruled that Darwin the Ikea monkey was a wild animal and should not be returned to its former owner Yasmin Nakhuda. He had been found wandering in the parking lot of a Toronto Ikea store in December 2012 dressed in a faux-shearling coat.

14 - Marathon negotiations between U.S. and Russian diplomats in Geneva produced a sweeping agreement on securing and destroying Syria's chemical weapons stockpile by mid-2014, averting the threat of U.S. military action in response to an August poison gas attack that killed 1,400 civilians.

16 - Defence Department contractor and former navy reservist Aaron Alexis opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people before he was slain in a gunbattle with police.

16 - Engineers began a successful 19-hour salvage operation to gingerly right the listed cruise ship Costa Concordia off a reef near Italy's Giglio Island. Thirty-two people died when the ship hit the reef in January 2012.

18 - A double-decker Ottawa city bus rolled through a flashing level crossing and plowed into the side of a passing Via Rail train. The collision sheared off the front of the bus and knocked the locomotive and the first of four passenger cars off the tracks. Six people on the bus died, including the driver, while 30 others were injured.

18 - Dr. Donald Low, who became a trusted face and voice of Toronto's SARS response effort in 2003, died at age 68.

19 - Two Canadians were among 30 Greenpeace activists arrested by the Russian Coast Guard following an anti-oil drilling protest in Arctic waters.

20 - Smartphone maker BlackBerry announced a 40 per cent cut in its workforce, or 4,500 jobs, as phone sales faltered and the company projected a nearly billion-dollar quarterly loss.

21 - Sixty-one civilians, including two Canadians, were killed in a raid on Nairobi's Westgate Mall by the Somali-based, al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabab. It took Kenyan forces four days to end the hostage-taking and siege.

22 - Chancellor Angela Merkel led her conservatives to victory in Germany's election but fell five seats short of an absolute majority. A coalition agreement was not expected to be finalized until mid-December.

22 - Former Loblaw president and long-time pitchman Dave Nichol died at the age of 73. He appeared in TV ads for the grocery chain's No Name and President's Choice brands, which he introduced, in the '80s and '90s and helped build President's Choice into one of Canada's top labels.

23 - A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck in the remote district of Awaran in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, killing 271 people.

30 - Kingston Penitentiary, Canada's most notorious federal prison, formally shut its doors after 178 years. It was designated a national historic site in 1990.

30 - Pope Francis announced that Popes John Paul II and John XXIII would be declared saints on April 27, 2014.

OCTOBER

1 - America was plunged into a partial government shutdown as a long-running dispute in Congress over President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job and suspending most non-essential programs and services. A last-minute deal to temporarily raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit was brokered a day before the Oct. 17 deadline to avert a Treasury default.

1 - Tom Clancy, whose high-tech, Cold War thrillers such as "The Hunt for Red October" and "Patriot Games" made him the most widely read and influential military novelist of his time, died at age 66.

3 - A ship carrying more than 500 African migrants to Europe caught fire and capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa, killing at least 365 people.

5 - Two Canadians were freed from an Egyptian prison where they had been held for seven weeks but Toronto-based filmmaker John Greyson and Dr. Tarek Loubani of London, Ont., were not allowed to leave the country until Oct. 11. They were arrested on Aug. 16 during violent anti-government demonstrations in Cairo.

7 - Brazil demanded answers following allegations Canada's electronic eavesdropping agency mounted a sophisticated spy operation against its ministry of mines and energy. The report was based on documents leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

8 - Peter Higgs of Britain and Francois Englert of Belgium won the Nobel Prize in physics for their theoretical discoveries on how subatomic particles acquire mass, a key to explaining the building blocks of matter and the origins of the universe. Their theories were confirmed in 2012 by the discovery of the so-called Higgs boson particle, often referred to as the God particle.

8 - Voters in Nova Scotia dumped the one-term NDP and gave Stephen McNeil's Liberals a majority government with 33 seats in the 51-seat legislature. The NDP government was the first in 131 years to be denied a second term in Nova Scotia.

8 - Power Corp. founder Paul Desmarais, one of Canada's most influential business tycoons and a staunch federalist, died at the age of 86.

9 - An Edmonton judge approved a class-action lawsuit against Alberta's XL Foods over E. coli tainted beef that forced the largest meat recall in Canada's history in 2012.

10 - Decorated short story author Alice Munro, 82, won the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first Canadian-based writer to secure the honour.

10 - Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison for corruption.

11 - The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won the Nobel Peace Prize for trying to destroy Syria's stockpiles of nerve gas and other poisonous agents.

15 - Ontario-born, New Zealand-based Eleanor Catton won Britain's Booker Prize fiction award for "The Luminaries," an ambitious 832-page murder mystery set during a 19th-century gold rush. At age 28, she was the youngest writer to win the prestigious award.

17 - The government's leader in the Senate introduced motions to suspend Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau over the expenses scandal. The motions would strip the trio of their pay, benefits and Senate resources.

17 - RCMP arrested dozens of people in Rexton, N.B., after a protest over shale gas development turned violent when officers began enforcing an injunction to end the demonstration.

17 - Former hockey tough guy Georges Laraque said he was stepping down as deputy leader of the federal Green party and as a candidate in a Montreal-area byelection so he could fight fraud charges filed against him in relation to the Super-Glide synthetic ice venture he co-founded in 2009.

18 - After four years of protracted negotiations, Canada and the European Union reached an agreement in principle on a new free-trade deal that proponents said could increase Canada's gross domestic product by $12 billion and help create 80,000 jobs.

19 - Thirteen cars on a CN freight train carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas went off the rails near Gainford, about 80 kilometres west of Edmonton, and the subsequent fire forced the evacuation of about 120 people. It was the third CN derailment in western Canada in less than a month. No one was injured in any of the derailments.

22 - The B.C. Civil Liberties Association announced it was suing the federal government spy agency Communications Security Establishment Canada over allegations it spied on citizens and violated charter rights by intercepting private communications online and over the telephone.

22 - In a riveting speech to his Senate colleagues over Ottawa's bid to suspend him and two other senators over improper expense claims, Mike Duffy claimed he was a victim of a "monstrous conspiracy" by the Prime Minister's Office to make a political embarrassment go away.

25 - Former real estate mogul Paul Reichmann died at age 87. He and his brothers turned Toronto tile company Olympia and York Developments into a major international property developer that became the name behind some of the best-known projects in the world before eventually going bankrupt in the early 1990s.

27 - Lou Reed, who profoundly influenced generations of musicians as leader of the Velvet Underground, died at age 71.

28 - Former cardiologist Conrad Murray, convicted of causing Michael Jackson's death in 2009, was released from jail. He served less than two years after being convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter.

28 - Penn State announced it was paying $59.7 million to 26 young men over claims of child sexual abuse at the hands of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

29 - Sears Canada announced it was closing its flagship location in Toronto's Eaton Centre, as well as four other stores. In November, it announced another 800 job cuts.

29 - The world's first Bitcoin ATM went into operation in a Vancouver coffee shop, allowing customers to exchange cash for the decentralized online currency.

30 - Star Canadian cyclist Ryder Hesjedal, 32, acknowledged excerpts from a new book by a former Danish rider that he used performance-enhancing drugs at the start of his career almost a decade earlier, but said it was short-lived.

31 - The drug scandal involving Toronto Mayor Rob Ford exploded around the world when police indicated they had found an alleged video that appeared to show him smoking crack cocaine.

NOVEMBER

2 - Denis Coderre, a former longtime Liberal MP, was elected mayor of Montreal. Voter turnout was low after the two previous mayors resigned in scandal, and revelations of kickbacks and bid-rigging that drove up construction costs.

5 - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford revealed he had smoked crack cocaine while in a "drunken stupor" — a shocking about-face after months of denials over drug use. Ford apologized but said he would not resign.

5 - The Senate voted to suspend Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau without pay — but with benefits intact — for the remainder of the parliamentary session, which could continue until 2015. All three maintained they were the victims of a witch hunt aimed at putting a lid on a Senate expenses scandal that had engulfed the Prime Minister's Office. They remained under RCMP investigation over allegedly fraudulent expense claims.

5 - Bill de Blasio was elected New York City's first Democratic mayor in two decades, taking over after billionaire Michael Bloomberg's 12 years in office.

7 - The Quebec government tabled its controversial values charter in the national assembly, which would force provincial employees to take off their headscarves, yarmulkes, turbans and larger-than-average crucifixes if they wanted to keep their jobs.

7 - Shares of Twitter went on sale to the public for the first time, leaping more than 70 per cent above their offering price of $26.

7 - Mullah Fazlullah, the ruthless commander behind the attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, as well as a series of bombings and beheadings, was appointed the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban, nearly a week after a U.S. drone strike killed previous chief Hakimullah Mehsud.

8 - One of the most ferocious typhoons on record slammed into the Philippines with tsunami-like storm surges, flattening entire towns and villages. At least 5,719 people were killed, 1,800 were missing and search crews were still finding bodies weeks after Typhoon Haiyan hit. More than 1.1 million houses were damaged or destroyed and more than 3.8 million people were displaced.

10 - Five people died after a twin-engine turboprop plane crashed on approach to the Red Lake airport in northwestern Ontario and burst into flames. Two people survived the crash.

12 - Montreal's Mylene Paquette became the first North American woman to row solo across the treacherous North Atlantic when she arrived in Lorient, France. She departed on the 5,000-kilometre voyage from Halifax on July 6.

12 - Saint John police arrested Dennis Oland in the 2009 death of his father, prominent New Brunswick businessman Richard Oland. He was charged with second-degree murder.

13 - Toronto city council passed a non-binding motion demanding Mayor Rob Ford take a leave of absence. During the debate, Ford admitted to buying illegal drugs while in office.

14 - Speaking at city hall as TV cameras broadcast live, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford used crude language to deny allegations that he told a former aide he was going to have oral sex with her.

14 - Toronto police said an international child pornography investigation centred around a Toronto man resulted in the arrest of 348 suspects in more than 50 countries, including 108 in Canada. Police say 386 children had been rescued, including 24 in Canada.

15 - Toronto city council overwhelmingly passed two motions that stripped away much of scandal-plagued Mayor Rob Ford's powers. A third motion that passed on Nov. 18 slashed his mayoral budget and handed many of his duties and his staff to the deputy mayor.

15 - Former Canadian Forces medic James Wilks was convicted by a military judge of 25 sexual assault and breach of trust charges involving 16 women. Victims alleged inappropriate medical exams at Ontario military recruitment sites in Thunder Bay and London from 2003 to 2009.

16 - Former Nova Scotia premier Darrell Dexter announced he would be stepping down as leader of the New Democratic Party, just weeks after it was knocked from power to third-party status in the latest provincial election.

16 - A B.C. man accused of setting up an illegal dental surgery in the bedroom of a house near Vancouver turned himself in to police in Toronto. A B.C. court had sentenced Tung Sheng (David) Wu in absentia in October to three months in jail for contempt for ignoring a court order to stop practising dentistry without a licence.

17 - Nobel prize-winning author Doris Lessing died at age 94. "The Golden Notebook" and dozens of other novels reflected her improbable journey across the former British empire.

17 - Dozens of tornadoes swept across the U.S. Midwest in a rare November blast of warm-weather storms, leaving at least eight people dead and unleashing powerful winds that flattened entire neighbourhoods, flipped over cars and uprooted trees.

18 - Former northern priest Eric Dejaeger pleaded guilty in a Nunavut courtroom to eight of 76 sex-related charges he faced involving Inuit children. The trial continued with testimony from complainants.

18 - NASA's newest robotic explorer, Maven, rocketed toward Mars. It was due to arrive on Sept. 22, 2014, following a journey of more than 640 million kilometres.

20 - Documents filed in court by the RCMP allege Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff Nigel Wright broke the law by cutting a $90,000 cheque to Sen. Mike Duffy so he could repay living expenses that were deemed invalid.

20 - Transport Minister Lisa Raitt issued a directive requiring rail companies to tell municipalities when they transport dangerous goods through their communities. It came months after the deadly July derailment and explosion in Lac-Megantic that killed 47 people.

20 - The federal government introduced a wide-ranging bill designed to make it illegal to distribute "intimate images" without consent and easier to get such images scrubbed off the Internet.

21 - Maurice (Mad Dog) Vachon, one of Canada's most colourful wrestlers, died at the age of 84.

22 - Paul Ruzycki of Port Colborne, Ont., and Alexandre Paul of Montreal, the two Canadians among 30 activists arrested in Russia following a Greenpeace protest of an oil rig in the Arctic Sea, were freed on bail. The last of the 30 was granted bail on Nov. 28.

22 - The city of Dallas unveiled a new monument at Dealey Plaza marking 50 years to the day since the assassination of U.S. president John. F. Kennedy. The plaque features the last paragraph of the speech he was set to give at a luncheon.

24 - Iran struck a historic deal with the U.S. and five other world powers, agreeing to a six-month freeze of its nuclear program while negotiations on a permanent agreement continued. In exchange, Iran was to gain modest relief from stiff economic sanctions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "historic mistake.''

25 - The World Trade Organization upheld the EU's three-year-old ban on imported seal products, stating that even though aspects of it undermine fair trade rules, it can be justified on "public moral concerns" for animal welfare. Ottawa planned to appeal the decision.

25 - In four federal byelections, the Conservatives held on to two longtime Tory bastions in Manitoba, while the Liberals retained two traditional strongholds in Toronto and Montreal. The Liberals increased their share of the vote in all four ridings.

25 - Ten former National Hockey League players, including all-star forward Gary Leeman, launched a class-action lawsuit claiming that the league had not done enough to protect players from concussions.

26 - The NHL and Rogers announced the largest TV deal in NHL history, a 12-year, $5.2-billion pact giving Rogers sole national multimedia broadcast rights to all games. A sublicensing agreement preserved "Hockey Night in Canada" on CBC for another four years but Rogers retained editorial control and revenues.

27 - The Italian Senate expelled three-time ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi from Parliament over a tax fraud conviction, halting the 77-year-old's legislative run for at least six years, but it did not mark the end of his political career as he had relaunched his Forza Italia party and analysts estimated he still commanded millions of supporters.

28 - Alleged gang leader Quang Vinh Thang (Michael) Le pleaded guilty to orchestrating an execution of a rival drug trafficker in a Vancouver-area highrise in 2007 that ultimately killed five other people, including two innocent bystanders.

29 - Cpl. Ron Francis, a New Brunswick Mountie who ran afoul of a policy banning RCMP officers from smoking medicinal marijuana while in uniform, returned his red serge dress uniform to the department's headquarters in Fredericton after he said he was ordered to do so.

29 - A police helicopter crashed through the roof of a crowded Glasgow pub, killing its crew — two police officers and a civilian pilot — and six patrons. More than a dozen were hospitalized with serious injuries.

30 - Actor Paul Walker, 40, the star of the "Fast & Furious" movie series, was killed along with one other person when his friend's Porsche Carrera GT crashed into a light pole and tree and burst into flames. Police said speed was a factor in the crash northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

30 - RCMP arrested Canadian naval engineer Qing Quentin Huang, 53, and charged him under the Security of Information Act with trying to send classified information on the Canadian military's planned Arctic patrol ships to the Chinese government.

DECEMBER

1 - A speeding New York City passenger train on the southbound Hudson Line derailed on a riverside curved section of track in the Bronx, killing four people and injuring more than 60 others.

2 - Toronto Const. John Zivcic died from injuries he suffered two days earlier when his unmarked police cruiser collided with another vehicle as he was responding to an emergency call about an impaired driver.

3- Canadian fertilizer producer Potash Corp. announced it was cutting its workforce by about 18 per cent, affecting 1,045 people — with the biggest hits in its home province of Saskatchewan as well as New Brunswick and Florida.

5 - Former South African president Nelson Mandela, who became one of the world's most beloved statesmen and a colossus of the 20th century when he emerged from 27 years in prison to negotiate an end to apartheid, died at age 95.

9 - American Airlines emerged from bankruptcy protection as it completed a deal with US Airways to create the world's biggest airline, American Airlines Group Inc.

10 - General Motors named product development chief Mary Barra its new CEO, the first female head of a U.S. car company.

11 - Canada Post announced it was phasing out home delivery within five years and switching to community mail boxes. The federal Crown corporation also announced about 6,000 to 8,000 positions would be eliminated over the same time period, mainly through attrition.

12 - Conservative Sen. Hugh Segal announced he is retiring from the upper chamber effective June 2014 to become master of the University of Toronto's Massey College. Segal was at odds with his party over its decision to push through legislation suspending three senators at the heart of the ongoing expense scandal without pay.

13 - A teenager who may have had a grudge against a teacher opened fire with a shotgun at a suburban Denver high school, wounding two fellow students before killing himself.

15 - The agent for Peter O'Toole announced the actor's death at the age of 81. O'Toole, a charismatic actor who achieved instant stardom as Lawrence of Arabia and was nominated eight times for an Academy Award, died after a long illness.

16 - Daniel Paille announced he is resigning as Bloc Quebecois leader after two years because he has epilepsy. Paille, 63, said he can no longer withstand the pace required to head a political party.

16 - A federal-provincial meeting on Canada Pension Plan failed to reach an agreement. The meeting broke up in recriminations after several provincial ministers accused Finance Minister Jim Flaherty of blocking efforts to enrich the plan — or even agreeing to further study.

17 - A military helicopter swooped in to airlift a worker trapped on a construction crane above a massive fire in Kingston, Ont. Police said the crane operator suffered only minor injuries after being stranded when the blaze broke out at an apartment building that was under construction.

17 - President Barack Obama sent Russia a clear message about its treatment of gays and lesbians as he announces Billie Jean King will be one of two openly gay athletes in the U.S. delegation for the opening and closing ceremonies at the Sochi Olympics. Russia has come under fierce criticism for passing national laws banning "gay propaganda."

18 - Russia's parliament voted for an amnesty bill that includes the 30-member crew of a Greenpeace ship detained after a protest at a floating oil rig in the Arctic. Two Canadians from the ship were granted bail by a Russian court in November and the amnesty has been largely viewed as the Kremlin's attempt to soothe criticism of Russia's human rights records ahead of the Winter Olympics.

18 - 'Great Train Robber' Ronnie Biggs, who was part of a gang of at least 12 men that robbed the Glasgow-to-London Royal Mail Train in August 1963, dies at the age of 84. The robbery netted 125 sacks of banknotes worth 2.6 million pounds — $7.3 million at the time, or more than $50 million today — and became known as "the heist of the century."

19 - An inquest jury says the videotaped choking death of a teenager in her segregation cell six years ago was a homicide, sparking calls for police to reopen their criminal investigation into the tragedy. The Ashley Smith inquest decision drew a gasp from a packed coroner's courtroom, which also heard jurors make 104 recommendations on dealing with self-harming, mentally ill women in federal prisons.

19 - A review panel gives its blessing to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline that would carry bitumen from Alberta's oilsands to tankers on the West Coast. The panel attached 209 conditions, which cover everything from protecting caribou habitat to research into how the oil would behave in a marine environment to the company's spill response plans.

20 - The Canadian Army scraps a $2-billion order for new armoured vehicles — the latest in a series of troubled procurements for the military. Gen. Tom Lawson, the chief of defence staff, says despite the cancellation of an order for 108 close-combat vehicles, he's satisfied the military has the capability to handle any mission.

20 - The Supreme Court of Canada strikes down the country's prostitution laws in a unanimous 9-0 ruling. The landmark Supreme Court decision gives Parliament one-year to produce new legislation, which means prostitution-related offences will remain in the Criminal Code until Dec. 19, 2014. Justice Minister Peter MacKay expresses the government's concern with the ruling.

22 - Hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity as an ice storm caused chaos from southwestern Ontario to parts of the Maritimes. Toronto was among the hardest hit as ice splintered a huge number of trees, and turned roads and sidewalks into skating rinks.

23 - Two jailed members of the Russian punk bank Pussy Riot were released following an amnesty law that both described as a Kremlin public relations stunt ahead of the Winter Olympics.

24 - Sherritt International Corp. announced it is selling its entire coal business to two separate buyers for a total of $946 million, split almost evenly between Westmoreland Coal and Altius Minerals. Sherritt's operating coal mines in Alberta and Saskatchewan are going to Colorado-based Westmoreland Coal, which has six coal mines in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and Texas.

25 - In his speech on Christmas Day, Pope Francis said he hopes for a better world, including successful Middle East negotiations in the land of Jesus' birth, peace for Syria and several war-torn African countries, and dignity for refugees fleeing misery and conflict.

25 - Flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains killed at least eight people and injured five on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent. The government's National Emergency Management Organization said one of those who died was an 18-year-old college student. Five people were reported missing.

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Year in review: From scandal-plagued politicians to natural disasters, here are the biggest newsmakers of 2013

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